Prince Harry guest makes bid to steal spotlight

John Breunig

Updated 11:06 pm, Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Prince Harry was unquestionably the leading man at his own fundraiser Wednesday, but a cameo performance briefly stole the show.

An auction to raise additional funds for the prince's charity, Sentabale, featured a trio of high-ticket items: a bottle of 62 Gun Salute, an elite whisky from Royal Salute, the presenting sponsor of the match at the Greenwich Polo Club at Conyers Farm; a round of golf at the Country Club of Purchase, N.Y., with actress Catherine Zeta-Jones; and a Garrard Necklace, a platinum and white diamond pendant designed for Sentebale to reflect its meaning (forget me not).

The first two items inspired winning bids in the $6,000 range. The necklace, which retails for 17,000 pounds, was presented before the crowd of 400 by former model Delfina Blaquier, whose husband Nacho Figueras was the captain of the St. Regis team. With bidding starting slow, some audience members commented on the challenge of bidding on a piece without seeing it up close. One woman decided to get a better look.

"I couldn't understand," Stoller later said. "How could you bid on a 17-thousand-dollar necklace (actually pounds) and not see it except for a photograph."

Stoller's cameo drew the attention of the audience as she paused to assess the pendant. The crowd watched the pantomime unaware of the exchange taking place in front of Prince Harry's table.

"I was not in love with it," Stoller finally decided.

Realizing her evaluation might sound harsh, she added, "it's beautiful, but it's not for me."

"Then I saw the earrings. They were for me."

Before a mystified audience, Stoller reached up to the earrings Blaquier was wearing. With the auction still on hold, she made a proposition.

"I asked Nacho's wife if I could get those instead, but I would need to try them on."

Since they were Blaquier's own earrings, the former model offered to swap them for the necklace if Stoller submitted the winning bid.

Blaquier removed the earrings and offered them to Stoller to try on.

"But there was no mirror," Stoller later recalled, her chin on her umbrella as she described her ongoing frustration.

Her table mate, Susan Marchand of Kinnelon, N.J., found a solution in her purse.

Stoller paused to consider her reflection, and whether to make a bid.

"I took a look and decided they looked too much like ones I already owned," she decided.

After the brief exchange, no other buyers stepped forward. Stoller said she was frustrated that more people didn't get a chance to take a closer look at the jewelry and possibly add to the financial support for the charity Prince Harry founded to help children in the African nation of Lesotho.

One person in the room, though, expressed relief about the fate of the jewels.

"I got lucky because I didn't have to buy it," said Dr. Steven Stoller, an orthopedic surgeon, polo player and husband of the woman who added drama and comedy to the luncheon.